Contents

Early life
and career

Marc Andrew "Pete" Mitscher was born in Hillsboro, Wisconsin on January
26, 1887, the son of Oscar & Myrta (Shear) Mitscher.[1] During
the western land boom of 1888, when he was two years old, his
family resettled in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his father, a federal Indian
Agent, later became that city's second mayor.[2] Despite
the family settlement in Oklahoma, records attest that Mitscher
attended elementary and secondary schools in Washington, D.C.[3] and
received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1906. He graduated from the Naval
Academy in 1910 and served at sea for two years (as required by law
at that time) on board USS Colorado (ACR-7),
becoming a commissioned Ensign on
March 7, 1912. In August 1913 he served aboard the USS California (ACR-6)
on the West Coast of the U.S. during the Mexican
Campaign

Interwar
assignments

On May 10, 1919 he took off from Newfoundland as the pilot of the
NC-1, one of
four Curtiss NCFlying Boat aircraft in
the Naval Transatlantic flight expedition. His
plane and the NC-3 landed in heavy fog near the Azores, but heavy seas prevented
them from joining NC-4 in
completing the first transatlantic air passage. For his part in
this historic operation, Mitscher received the Navy Cross. The citation
for his Navy Cross read as follows:

"For distinguished service in the line of his profession as
a member of the crew of the Seaplane NC-1, which made a long
overseas flight from New Foundland to the vicinity of the Azores,
in May 1919".[5]

Lieut. Marc A. Mitscher reported for duty aboard USS Aroostook
(CM-3) on October 14, 1919, serving under the Commanding Officer
Captain Henry C. Mustin. USS Aroostook was assigned temporary
duties as flag ship for the Air Detachment, Pacific Fleet. He was
promoted to Lieut. Comdr. date of rank July 1, 1921. In May 1922,
Lieut. Comdr. Mitscher was detached from Air Squadrons, Pacific
Fleet (San Diego CA) to command Naval Air Station Anacostia,
D.C.[6]

World War
II

Mitscher aboard his flagship, the Lexington, in
1944.

Between June 1939 and July 1941 he served as assistant chief of
the Bureau of Aeronautics.
Thereafter, he fitted out the carrier Hornet, and he assumed her
command at her commissioning in October 1941. While under his
command, the Hornet launched the Doolittle Raid against Japan in early
1942 and thus gained fame as to their point of origin being "Shangri
La" expressed during a news conference given by President
Roosevelt.

Mitscher captained her during the Battle of Midway 4 to June 6,
but his air group's performance in that crucial engagement ranged
from disappointing to outright disastrous. On the eve of the Battle
of Midway, Admiral Mitscher, with the support of his Air Group
Commander, CDR Stanhope C. Ring, denied fighter air cover to the
Hornet's torpedo squadron, led by LCDR John C. Waldron. Mitscher
then ordered the strike group to fly a course of 265 degrees true
(instead of the 234 degrees of the enemies last sighting). This
resulted in most of the airgroup never sighting the enemy. Only
Waldron's Torpedo Eight squadron, because Waldron disobeyed orders
and flew course 240 degrees, flew directly to the enemy carrier
group's location. Torpedo Eight was the first carrier squadron to
be in position to attack. Unescorted by fighters, Torpedo Eight was
decimated by Japanese Zeros. Only one man survived (Ens. George
H.Gay Jr). However, Torpedo Eight's sacrifice enabled dive bombers
from the carriers Enterprise and Yorktown to sink three Japanese
carriers virtually unopposed. In spite of CDR Ring's hearing CDR
Waldron's radioed report that he had found the enemy, CDR Ring
continued on course 260 degrees to nowhere. The Hornet strike force
following the orders of CDR Ring was unable to find the enemy, and
eventually headed back toward either the Hornet, or Midway Island,
to land and refuel. All ten fighters in the formation ran out of
fuel and ditched at sea. Several dive bombers also had to ditch on
their approach to the Midway base. Except for Torpedo Eight, none
of the Hornet's strike force played any role on the first day of
the Battle of Midway.

Mitscher commanded Patrol Wing 2 until December when he became
commander fleet air, Nouméa. In April 1943 he became commander air,
Solomon
Islands, and from August to January 1944 he commanded Fleet
Air, West Coast. Returning to the central Pacific as Commander,
Carrier Division 3, he was appointed Vice Admiral March 21,
1944 and ordered to take command of the Fast Carrier Task Force (then
5th Fleet's TF 58). With
the Lexington as his
flagship for this task
force, which operated alternately as 3rd Fleet's TF 38, he
inflicted severe and irreparable damage on Japanese ground
installations and against enemy naval and merchant shipping. His
hard-hitting, wide-ranging carriers pounded the enemy from Truk to the Palaus, along the New Guinea coast, and
throughout the Marianas. His eager, resourceful
aviators devastated Japanese carrier forces in the Battle of the Philippine
Sea—also known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot—during June 1944.
Notably, when a follow-up strike was forced to return to his
carriers in darkness, Mitscher earned the gratitude of his pilots
by turning on the flight decks' running lights, defying standard
naval procedure and ensuring that most of them were recovered.

By July 1946 when he returned to the United States to serve as
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), Mitscher had received,
among other awards, two Gold Stars in lieu of a second and third
Navy Cross and the Distinguished Service
Medal with two Gold Stars. He served briefly as commander 8th Fleet and on March 1,
1946 became Commander-in-Chief, U.S.
Atlantic Fleet, with the rank as admiral. While serving in that
capacity, Mitscher died at Norfolk, Virginia. He was buried in
Arlington National
Cemetery.[7]

Mitscher's
legacy

The words of Admiral Arleigh Burke provide the greatest
tribute and recognition of his leadership:

"He spoke in a low voice and used few words. Yet, so great was
his concern for his people — for their training and welfare in
peacetime and their rescue in combat — that he was able to obtain
their final ounce of effort and loyalty, without which he could not
have become the preeminent carrier force commander in the world. A
bulldog of a fighter, a strategist blessed with an uncanny ability
to foresee his enemy's next move, and a lifelong searcher after
truth and trout streams, he was above all else — perhaps above all
other — a Naval Aviator."

In addition to the ships named after Admiral Mitscher, the
airfield and a street at Marine Corps Air Station
Miramar (Naval Air Station Miramar) have been named in his
honor (Mitscher Field and Mitscher Way).

^The Navy Book of Distinguished Service: An Official Compendium
of the Names and Citations of the Men of the United States Navy,
Marine Corps, Army and Foreign Governments Who Were Decorated by
the Navy Department for Extraordinary Gallantry and Conspicuous
Service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty in the World War
(editor: Harry R. Stringer, p 107, Fassett Publishing Company:
Washington DC, 1921).